


Seeking Alpha

by valeriacatulli



Series: Ridiculust [6]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Office, Characters Reading Fanfiction, Crack, F/M, Interns & Internships, Meet-Cute, Rey is an A/B/O addict
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-25
Updated: 2020-11-25
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:20:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,752
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27706168
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/valeriacatulli/pseuds/valeriacatulli
Summary: Rey is addicted to A/B/O fanfiction, which leads to some awkwardness in her internship in the fast-paced world of start-ups and venture capital, where "Alpha" means something *entirely different.*
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Series: Ridiculust [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1550944
Comments: 1
Kudos: 15





	Seeking Alpha

"So, Miss Kenobi is going to tell us about the alpha privative in proto-Indo-European," says Professor Syndulla kindly, inviting Rey to the podium to give her presentation. Rey blushes as she stands and goes to the front of the seminar room. 

How ever is she going to get through the next five minutes of talking about a linguistic phenomenon that happens to be called "alpha privative" when every time she says the word "alpha," it brings to mind the hottest, dirtiest fanfiction? She's hopelessly addicted to the stuff. The last one she read, with Alpha!Uhura and Omega!Spock...phew! Rey sighs and pulls up her Google Slides presentation, willing herself to remain stoic and focused on her mini-presentation to her classmates.

* * *

It's not any easier at her internship. Professor Syndulla had nodded sympathetically when Rey broke the news that despite being the highest-achieving linguistics and computational linguistics double major in years, she did not want to go on to a doctoral program right away. She wanted to explore jobs in the start-up economy. Luckily, the college was right outside Boston, so Professor Syndulla had a friend of a friend who was able to arrange a paid internship at First Order Capital Partners. 

Rey's main task is to manage First Order Capital's social media. This involves responding to any incoming queries and any comments on their posts in a professional manner. She also has to keep their feeds lively with relevant shares. She only posts original material when they have press releases to share about the companies they invest in, or on rare occasions when the partners want to make a statement, like against racism in AI. For the most part she is just expected to read industry news about venture capital, start-ups, AI and finance and choose the most interesting articles to share. 

The problem is that when people were naming their business newsletters, apparently nobody spared a thought for the condition of Rey's panties. There is actually a newsletter called "Seeking Alpha" and she is expected to read it without conjuring visions of massive knots:

"Shrinking valuations" doesn't sound that promising, but it still doesn't get her mind out of the gutter. She squeezes her thighs together, shifting uncomfortably in her chair. Rey is truly, truly fucked. Figuratively, that is. Not literally. (If only!)

* * *

She's sitting at her desk eating a Cup Noodles and, yes, reading yet more fanfiction on her lunch break when Mr. Hux drops by. He's the head of operations and tied with her boss, Managing Director Rose Tico, for highest-ranking individual she's met yet at First Order Capital. She hurriedly chucks her phone to the side, smiling brightly. "Yes Mr. Hux, what can I do for you?"

"Ah yes Rey, I had a little request for you," he says kindly in his gentle Irish burr. "Mr. Solo is very much impressed with your blog on biased artificial intelligence datasets. He'd like to meet you."

"Certainly, Mr. Hux, sir," she stammers. Benjamin Solo is Founding Partner and it's well known that he's been the chief decisionmaker at First Order Capital since he turned in the other founding partners, Snoke and Palpatine, to the IRS and reformed the organization. "I don't have any meetings this afternoon, so at his convenience." 

"Come with me then, Rey," Mr. Hux smiles. 

They ride an elevator up to the top floor of the building. Rey has been up here once, when Ms. Tico showed her around. They dropped in on the corner office occupied by retired Senator Leia Organa, who was Ms. Tico's favorite person on planet Earth and who had some sort of vague role in the firm which Rey didn't really understand. 

Now, though, she is heading to the other end of the top floor, trailing behind the perfectly tailored person of Mr. Hux. He raps gently at a large oaken door. At the sound of a muffled "come in,' Hux pushes open the door and gestures Rey to precede him through. She steps into the room and gasps.

There, silhouetted against the bright light of a floor-to-ceiling window, is the most perfect specimen of alpha manhood she could ever have imagined in her wildest dreams. Mr. Solo stands well over six feet, broad in shoulder and chest, garbed in a well tailored dark grey woolen suit. His hair curls around the top of his collar and his long, thick fingers grasp a manila folder full of what are undoubtedly important papers he had been reading when interrupted.

Rey can't help her involuntary response. She feels weak in the knees and damp in the knickers. "Alpha," she breathes quietly.

Hux spins toward her with a raised eyebrow. She blushes scarlet. "Um, hello," she squeaks.

Hux frowns as if he doesn't believe her, but gestures between her and a chair. "Make yourself comfortable, Miss Kenobi. Ben, I'll leave you two to it," he says and pulls the door shut behind him.

Ben shuts his manila folder and smiles awkwardly at the young intern occupying the armchair on the other side of his vast desk. She is stunning, he realizes as his eyes trail involuntarily down her perfectly sculpted legs. He pulls himself together. Not good to be creeping on an intern, he thinks as he recalls the excellent work she had done that occasioned this meeting.

"Miss Kenobi, I hear that you are behind the industry-leading message on problems of bias and racism in AI that First Order put out," he says. She nods, but doesn't elaborate, apparently somewhat stunned by getting called into a meeting with the head of the firm.

"Based on that article, I think you could go really far in our field. What do you see yourself doing after you graduate?" he continues.

She perks up, eyes sparkling. "I'm a linguistics and computational linguistics double major, so I'm interested in working in NLP or automatic translation and trying to weed out bias in the algorithms," she responds. 

"That sounds ideal," Ben answers candidly. "First Order has a portfolio company, Work/Force, working to apply artificial intelligence to qualify job candidates. I think you may be just the person they need for their team. May I forward your resume?"

"Certainly!" Rey exclaims, overwhelmed by the way this day is just continuing to throw good things at her. She gets to look at this amazingly hot man _and_ he is arranging a job for her? What could be better?

* * *

_Three weeks later..._

Ben groans. He is less focused at work lately, finding himself compelled to visit other floors and "incidentally" cross paths with young Rey Kenobi in the sparse time remaining while she interns at First Order. His friend Dameron at Work/Force had, of course, offered her the job immediately -- would have been a damn fool not to. But as a result Ben's time being in the same building with the captivating young woman is limited.

He is sitting at his computer now after the end of the work day and feeling vaguely disgusted with himself. His search history could tell a sordid tale. He has never been the kind of guy to fantasize about secretaries and interns but apparently that is now the only thing that can feed the beast within him.

Fortunately there is always some distraction or urgent work item from the outside world to keep him sane. Now it is Armitage, who apparently keeps equally terrible hours, knocking on his door.

"Come in," he grunts, closing out the incriminating browser tabs. 

"I'm heading out," Armitage alerts him. "Just wanted to remind you that tomorrow night is the farewell for our intern class. Everyone is hoping you can come, but of course we all know you never do," Hux snarks.

"I'll be there," Ben pledges before he can think twice about what he's saying.

Armie's brows raise and a large grin slowly spreads across his face. "Is it so, eh?" he asks, sounding extra Irish as he teases his friend. "Is the mighty Ben Solo finally captivated by a slip of an intern?"

"Wha--what?" Ben asks, flustered. He hasn't said anything to anyone. Surely not even Armie would be able to read his mind.

"Ben, man, there was a great sea change after I brought that girl into your office," Hux says, smiling. "The two of you...and what she said..."

"What did she say?" Ben asks, more eagerly than he'd like to admit.

"Didn't you hear her whisper 'Alpha' when she came in here?" Hux asks, raising a brow.

"Huh? What does my role as a prominent investor in alpha rounds have to do with anything?" Ben asks, legitimately confused.

"Uhhh," Hux begins unpromisingly. "I don't really want to explain this for you. Have you ever heard of _Fifty Shades of Grey_?"

"Who hasn't?" Ben asks, grimacing slightly. "I hope no one thinks I am going to act like that dude."

"No, that's not what I'm getting at," Hux sighs. "I just meant that it was a fanfiction. There are a lot of themes in fanfiction. They call them tropes. One is called alpha/beta/omega." He pauses for a moment, unsure if he can really explain this to his workmate without really negative consequences. "You know, I don't really want to describe it to you," he finally decides.

"You brought it up," Ben points out.

Hux shrugs. "The impression I'm under is it is about controlling men who are like werewolves with huge dicks." Part of him relishes the confused look of consternation that crosses his friend's face. "But I don't actually read fanfiction so I may be entirely wrong."

Ben swallows hard. "I think I'm going to hope you are entirely wrong." 

"Quite," Hux responds affirmatively. "You'll have to read the fanfiction yourself, or just ask her out for heaven's sake."

* * *

Ben is a champion ditherer and procrastinator when it comes to his personal life -- so different from the out-for-blood persona he adopts in pitch meetings and contract negotiations. So of course he has neither asked her out nor read the fanfiction by the time of the party the next night. He lurks at the bar with an impassive expression on his long face, a black slim-cut suit, and a large tumbler of the secret stash of Scotch caterers know to bring to any First Order Capital event for the Solo/Organa family. Various people -- friends and sycophants -- come engage him in conversation, but he never moves, and his eyes rarely stop tracking Rey as she effervesces among the large group of friends she has built at First Order in a short time.

The next week she isn't there any more. Ben's workday goes back to normal, and he's more focused and efficient than he's been for a while. He does make a point of following all of Work/Force's blogs so that he catches anything she writes; she usually does the technical posts about their latest AI advances. He hasn't tried to find out what "Alpha" means in fanfiction; it would be much more efficient just to forget about her.

After a month it becomes clear he isn't just going to forget about her. For one thing, it's his role as a lead investor in Work/Force to meet with their team for a progress report on a regular basis. Dameron, damn the man, seems to have intuited that technical presentations go over much better when delivered by a young woman with a British accent. Plus she absolutely kills it at answering tough questions. So Ben is going to see her and her pink cheeks and dazzling smile at every Work/Force meeting. At least he's over the secretary/intern thing. But it still wouldn't be appropriate for him to ask her out, given the power he holds over all major decisions at the company she works for.

By the time four months have passed, even his rarely-present mother has noticed something has changed. "You're less murderous to the interns this semester," she notes while shooting the shit with him, Rose, and Armitage in her office. 

Armitage laughs aloud. "Ah, Senator, that's because Ben has a crush. He's learned empathy," he pontificates, smirking in response to Ben's murderous, inhuman growl. Leia's eyes widen and a broad smile brightens her face. She opens a cabinet behind her desk and extracts a bottle of fine Scotch and four cut crystal tumblers. She pours a generous measure in each and raises a toast at her red-faced son. "To grandchildren," she says with a glint in her eye. 

If looks could kill, Armitage would be on the floor with a crushed trachea.

* * *

When six months have passed, Rey finds herself so busy at work that she barely has any time to read fanfiction. Her tastes have changed a bit over time; A/B/O is still her favorite trope, but Spock isn't really doing it for her as much. There have been a lot of _Pride and Prejudice_ fics ("Knot me, Mr. Darcy!"), the occasional Clyde Logan or Loki or Adam Sackler or...well, basically any tall protagonist with long dark hair.

She misses her relaxation time, but she's working twelve-hour days and coming in on weekends in the rush to get the latest AI offering up and tested. Glassdoor has expressed some interest in their products and Poe is angling for a major investment or an acquisition. Mr. Solo comes by a lot to coach Poe on his presentation and offer strategic advice.

After another two months they get the good news. Work/Force is, in fact, going to be acquired. Various honchos from Glassdoor become ubiquitous, papers are signed, and the marketing team prepares the press releases announcing the acquisition. Some folks are concerned, but Rey's department is basically the asset Glassdoor wants most, so her job is secure. 

First Order Capital holds a big party for Work/Force to celebrate the successful exit. Poe is practically glowing with his success. He seems very close with a certain First Order partner, Finn. Rey manages to extricate herself from talking shop too much and goes to find Rose Tico, who had been so kind when Rey was at First Order. They chat for a while, then Rey goes to get them another glass of wine from the bar.

He's there. Ben Solo, the giant trespasser on her dreams, the alpha to end all alpha males. He manages to look satisfied and grumpy at the same time, until he realizes she's standing next to him. Then he looks surprised. "Ah, hello Miss Kenobi," he says quietly. "Though-- may I call you Rey?"

 _Call me omega_ , her brain treacherously supplies. "Certainly, if I can call you Ben," she flashes a predatory smile. "And if I can have your number."

He raises one eyebrow. "That feels somehow...inappropriate. The whole boss, investor thing with me having power over your employment."

Her face falls, but then she summons the usual spunk that handles technical questions so flawlessly in meetings, folding her arms over her chest. "Ben, don't you remember what we're here celebrating? You're no longer an investor in Work/Force. Successful exit? Earth to Ben?"

His mouth has fallen slightly open, as if the calculations going on under that hair of his are too much to process. Then he smiles widely.

"Did I ever tell you you're brilliant?" he asks. She snorts a little laugh, shaking her head _no_.

Ben hops off his stool, stepping closer into her space. He puts a hand on her shoulder, gently, then with the other large hand pushes a tendril of hair out of her face and tucks it gently behind her ear. "Can I kiss you?"

Rey's eyes pop open wide. "Right here?" But she also nods.

"I can't wait long enough to kiss you after the party," he mumbles as he presses his lips to hers. It's awkward at first -- neither of them has really been dating all that much this year, what with their silent obsessions with one another -- but after a minute they have their rhythm. Rey clasps her arms around his neck and he has one arm around her waist, the other clinging to her back like she might vanish.

When they eventually pull apart to breathe (and because the bartender is complaining at them), it's with matching dimpled smiles. Ben hears lazy clapping from behind him and turns to see Armie and Rose, the jokers. Ben scowls at his old friends. 

"I think this is our signal to leave," he murmurs in Rey's ear.


End file.
